Braid
by caughtinthefire
Summary: Just a sappy-as-hell Kailex oneshot set after Aven's defeat. Really, that's all it is. I'm not even going to kill anyone off this time round.


**Writer's block is still hanging around and can kindly go screw itself, in the meantime y'all can enjoy this sappy Kailex oneshot I wrote ages ago whilst I throttle it.**

 **Disclaimer: I am not Lynette Noni.**

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She'd spent a ridiculous amount of time at the James residence during the summer holidays, despite the fact that Dorothy Ronnigan's signature was the one on the dotted line committing to be her official caretaker for the holiday break. Kaiden had a knack of convincing her to visit him for a few hours … which often wound up for the rest of the day … which resulted in everyone turning a blind eye when she ended up slipping into his room with him for the night. Not that they were like _that_ … it was simply that their relationship was still a novelty, one they found every excuse to bask in — especially after the whole Aven mess.

They still had about two and a half weeks until it was time to return to the academy, and for about the thirtieth time she was hanging out with Kaiden, drying off the last of the watery residue from her swim by sunning themselves in one of the window seats looking out onto the endless blue below the cliffs before them. He had adopted a favoured position of lying out, his head resting in her lap, and an arm thrown loosely around her.

Damn, it wasn't fair how attractive he was, mused Alex as she looked down at him.

"I could probably braid this, if you let me," Alex informed her boyfriend, sectioning off the longer portion of his hair and combing her fingers through it. It was surprisingly fine for a guy's, the density of it not really surprising her as much as the soft texture of it. If he grew it out, he'd probably have nicer hair than her.

He narrowed his eyes up at her, alert with suspicion and anticipation. "Don't you dare. I'd look ridiculous."

"Not all of it. The hair at the back of your head's too short. But this whole bit here … she trailed off, lovingly running her fingers through the near-ponytail, giggling a little when he growled at her.

"No touching the hair, A."

"Aw," she pouted down at him, tracing her thumb back and forth over his cheekbone. "I do know how to braid, you've seen me do it. I promise you I'll be gentle."

"Yeah, but I don't know your experience with other people's hair. Everyone's scalp is different."

"What, have you got a sensitive one?"

He made an annoyed sound. "I don't, but … I'm not a fan of people touching my hair."

"So it's okay for me to do it when we're making out, then?"

His neck flushed brick red, and Alex grinned. He really was adorable when he got flustered - but unfortunately, that was a rarity for Kaiden James. He closed his eyes and mumbled, "That's different."

"Sure it is." She threaded her fingers through the silky handful for the third time. "C'mon, please. You can take it out if you don't like it."

"Why do you want to do it so much? Why don't you go do it on … Bear? His hair's at least to his chin."

"Because I'm not with Bear, I'm with you. And if you want to rest your head in my lap, then you need to suck it up when I decide I want to play with or stroke or braid your hair." She hesitated, deliberating telling him something. "And anyway, I already have braided his hair. It was when we were using him as a hairstyling dummy because he wanted to learn so he could do Evie's hair."

"What?" His mouth quirked up at the corner. "That's hilarious."

"Don't tell Declan I told you that. He'd only take the mickey out of him, and then Bear would kill all of us."

"In that case, why don't you always braid Bear's from now on?" he challenged, his smirk indicating that he was certain he had won.

Alex mirrored his mischievous smile. "If that's what you're fine with, then I guess you wouldn't mind if he also got to put his head in my lap."

His eyes flew open, his indignant reaction almost automatic. "What? Unacceptable."

"Why's that?"

His hand squeezed her hip. "Because I like putting my head here. And as though I completely understand you guys are nothing more than platonic, and I refuse to turn into a control freak boyfriend, I'd honestly prefer it if I was the only one. If that's all right with you." He sent her a soft, questioning smile at the end.

"Fine by me," Alex responded. "But you'll have to take it up with Soraya. You know how territorial she gets."

"She can be the exception, then. And Xiraxus."

"I don't let him. His head's way too bulky and heavy."

He chuckled. He shifted around a little, readjusting his position, this time resting his elbow higher above on the couch so that he had the height advantage to take ahold a strand of her hair.

Alex promptly swatted his hand away. "Hey, if I'm not allowed to touch yours, then you can't touch mine. Fair's fair."

Now this would definitely stump him. As much as he would deny that he had no favourite aspect of her physical appearance, her hair was definitely one of them. He loved playing with it, stroking his hands through it, even meticulously taking out her braids and ponytails so that it would fall down loose around her shoulders. She watched on in glee, practically seeing his mind whirling into a frenzy to find some loophole or excuse. Already his bottom lip was pouting out.

"Really, Alex?" he said, tugging gently on the strand of hair with every syllable. Her mouth curved up at his continuing puppy eyes. She laughed and swatted at his collarbone lightly.

"Stop looking so pathetic, or I'll have no option but to relent."

"But that's the exact angle I'm aiming for," he replied smugly, twirling the lock of hair around his index finger. The smug look disappeared when he remembered what he was supposed to be doing, replaced by the pout and puppy eyes.

"Not cute enough now."

"So it was the first time?"

She bit down on a laugh at their easy conversation, that was also well crossing the fine line between banter and flirtation. "Either time, it's clearly not enough to win me over."

Kaiden's lip extended further, and his eyes seemed to become all big and pleading and adorable. Nope, Alex told herself. Nope, nope, nopity, nope.

She tugged gently at his hair. "Just let me braid your hair now, and I'll kiss you afterwards."

"Hmm," he said, raising a palm over his hand protectively. "What sort of a kiss?"

"The sort we shouldn't be doing, full view in one of the front windows."

His hand lowered, an impish grin slowly spreading across his face. "You'd better uphold this."

"Since when do I break my promises?" Alex retaliated, already picking out the beginning of the braid. It really wasn't fair how nice quality his hair was — and probably his sister's. She'd do anything to have hair that didn't tangle as quickly as hers did.

A couple of minutes later, Kaiden murmured, "How much longer?"

"Another few folds, and then it's done. Why?" She deftly crossed over some more strands.

After a reluctant silence, his explanation came. "I think I like it when you do this."

She yanked a spare hairtie off her wrist, tidied up the braid, and fastened the band around the ends. She stifled a giggle at the ridiculous tuft of dark hair sticking up, before finally responding. He tilted his chin back, his inquisitive blue eyes meeting hers. "That's good. I'd hope to have some kind of return favour for every time you do nice things with my hair."

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 ***still throttling the writer's block* Anyway, leave a review and tell me what you think!**


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